Devil’s Knot is a film that follows step by step a story that made headlines for its numerous inconsistencies.
Especially because the real culprit is still at large…
Several documentaries, including two from HBO, and most notably a film.
The Devil’s Knot, directed by Atom Egoyan, tells the true story of the West Memphis Three.
It begins in 1993 and concludes (at least in part) nearly twenty years later.
The film, based on the book Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, written by Mara Leveritt, stars Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Alessandro Nivola, Amy Ryan, and Dane DeHaan.
It retraces one of the most intricate mysteries that has marked the history of American crime news.
The True Story
As mentioned, it is May 1993, and while Metallica is breaking records with their self-titled album, in West Memphis, Arkansas, Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, all just eight years old, disappear without a trace.
After a thorough search, the next day the police find their bodies in the dense woods of Robin Hoods Hills.
They have been brutally murdered.
Their bodies are found floating half-naked in a creek alongside their bicycles.
But by whom?
Given the brutal nature of the crime, the authorities suspect that the poor children might be victims of a satanic ritual.
The “Guilty”
A few days later, three local teenagers are arrested, accused of performing a macabre ritual in honor of Satan.
The scapegoats have now been chosen.
The community has no doubt: the deranged and sick killers are Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr.
Slackers obsessed with metal, outcasts and misfits, bored and repressed.
But, above all, followers of Aleister Crowley…
People living on the fringes of society, someone to be avoided.
The perfect killers—they fit the profile. The perfect picture!
Things don’t add up, but unexpectedly, Jessie decides to confess to killing the children with Baldwin and Echols’ help.
He later retracts, but by then the confession is on record.
Not only that, several testimonies seem to incriminate the three.
However, the polygraph tests are flawed, and the confessions are blatantly coerced.
The Sentence
Thus comes the verdict: Echols is sentenced to death (he is of age), while the other two receive life imprisonment.
The crowd now has its monsters, and it matters little that the investigation was hasty and sloppy.
As often happens, public opinion is divided (Devil’s Knot portrays this aspect well), and newspapers, talk shows, and the media discuss nothing else.
The Mobilization
Thanks to the HBO documentary, the story reaches Lorri Davies in Brooklyn.
The woman begins a pen-pal relationship with Echols, which eventually leads to marriage (a Buddhist ceremony) behind bars in 1999.
Meanwhile, Lorri Davies works to amplify the case, seeking support from Hollywood stars: Eddie Vedder, Winona Ryder, Peter Jackson.
Even Johnny Depp, who eventually became a close friend of Echols.
They are still friends today, years later.
The mobilization makes the authorities reconsider, and the case is reopened in 2007.
In 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court admits new evidence, including DNA.
Modern technology shows that the genetic material found at the crime scene does not belong to the three convicts.
Tada!
Conclusion
Thanks to the support of attorney Stephen Braga, the West Memphis Three strike a deal with the prosecution.
In simple terms, it involves an admission of innocence while acknowledging the charges brought against them eighteen years earlier.
This ensures they cannot sue the state of Arkansas for the long period spent wrongfully behind bars.
Judge Laser releases the boys on August 19, 2011.
The agreement is widely considered disgraceful, as it forces Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley to admit to a crime that, based on the evidence, they did not commit.
But then, who killed Steve, Michael, and Christopher?
It remains a mystery, though three witnesses in the documentary West of Memphis, produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, point the finger at a man named Terry Hobbs.
Terry Hobbs is the stepfather of one of the victims and had been loosely linked to the murder at the time.
This subtle accusation is also hinted at in the film’s plot montage.
And among the accusers is Michael Hobbs Jr., the nephew of the accused.
Regarding Devil’s Knot, Egoyan stated upon its release that the film:
“is based on how we relate to unresolved doubt. An extreme and at the same time universal situation.”
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